La Catrina leverages digital print

Southwest Wines & Spirits, a family owned distributor of beer, wine and spirits based in New Mexico, has leveraged digital printing technology to introduce a new wine brand to the market in the American Southwest. The Mexico tradition Dia de Los Muertos, or the Day of the Dead, is celebrated in many countries around the world and throughout the US at the same time as Halloween or All Saints Day.

For the celebration, calaveras, or representations of a human skull or skeleton, are made of many materials such as sugar, clay and paper, or can be printed or painted onto any substrate. La Calavera Catrina is an icon created by the Mexican printmaker Posada in 1913. It features a skeleton wearing a large hat typically worn by women of the upper classes at that time in Europe and serves as the origination of the fun-loving images that brighten up Day of the Dead celebrations.

Southwest Wines & Spirits launched the La Catrina wine brand in New Mexico on March 20, 2014, and quickly moved into Nevada by October. The brand features six wine varietals – cabernet sauvignon, chardonnay, merlot, red blend, pinto noir and pinot grigio – with vibrant shrink sleeve labels produced by Innovative Labeling Solutions (ILS) using an HP Indigo WS6000 digital press.

The six paintings from which the label images were created are by artist Sean Wells of Santa Fe, New Mexico. Wells has been heavily influenced by the traditional heritage art forms of the Southwest region and is a member of the Spanish Colonial Arts Society. It took about six months to develop the oil-based paintings for the La Catrina brand. The artwork and sleeve labels are themed around a wedding including the bride and groom, the priest, groomsmen, bridesmaids the mariachi band and La Catrina as the mother-of-the-bride.